instead, they were freed as soon as ronald reagan was inaugurated, delayed freeing the hostages. >> it fed into the whole dynamic of the 1980 race in the sense that jimmy carter was a stumbling, ineffective president. >> reporter: fast forward to 1992. president george h.w. bush was already on the ropes against bill clinton over a sluggish economy. when casper weinberger was implicated in the iran-contra scandal shortly before election day. bad news that bush, who served as reagan's vice president, did not need. in 2004, a classic october surprise. osama bin laden released a video on october 29th, just four days before election day, in a razor thing race between president bush and john kerry. three years after 9/11, it served as a reminder of the terrorist threat and strategists in both parties believe had helped president bush. more recently, the term october surprise has come to mean a seismic event in the fall of an election year. most have centered around foreign policy, others have been about the economy, like in 2008. when the economy imploded, john mccain's advisers say his camp